A. It is the policy of the city to favor the employment and the utilization of physically and/or mentally permanently disabled employees who are injured as a result of their duties and responsibilities as employees. The city reserves the right to make available a permanent light-duty position to any employee who may be determined to be permanently disabled from performing the functions and duties of such position which such employee may occupy at the time of a work-related injury. The city shall in no instance be obligated to provide a permanent light-duty position for an employee.
B. The duties and responsibilities of the permanent light-duty position shall be such that the disabled employee will be capable of performing them, notwithstanding such employee's disability. Such light-duty position may be made available in any department of the city, and need not be in the particular department in which such employee worked at the time of the work-related injury. Such position shall be termed a permanent light-duty position and may be created or modified at any time, including, but not limited to, subsequent to the occurrence of the work-related injury of any particular employee.
C. The permanent light-duty position need not have the same or even substantially similar duties or responsibilities to the position held by a permanently disabled employee at the time of a work-related injury, but shall be a position which provides substantially the same salary and benefits provided by the position held by the permanently disabled employee at the time he or she sustained a work-related injury.
D. Failure of a permanently disabled employee to accept a permanent light-duty position within thirty days of its tender to him/her shall constitute an absolute waiver and forfeiture of any right to disability retirement, including, but not limited to, such right which may be provided by the Government Code, and shall constitute a ground for termination of such employee.
(Ord. 86-04-974 § 1 (part), 1986)